Dividing apparatus.



R. HoYT. DIVIDING APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED SEPT.22,1904. 970,826. Patented Sept. 20, 1910.

4 SHEETB-SHEET 1.

La I BY Patented Sept. 20, 1910.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

R. HOYT.

- DIVIDING APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 22, 1904.

970,826. Patented Sept. 20, 1910.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

BVMW@ UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEi'cE.

noscor. noYT, oF NEW Yonx, N. Y.

lTo 'all whom 'it may concern.'

nIvIDING APPARATUS.

Be it known that I, Roscon HoYT, a citi-v zen of the United States, and a resident of 'the city of N ewYork, borough of Brooklyn, inthecounty of- Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Dividing Apparatus, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to apparatus for dividing material into definite quantities, it being especially adapted for separating such a plastic as dough into lumps of a substantially fixed weight. Itsprincipa'l objects are to provide a convenientmachlne which will automatically.perform operations of this character.

It consists in the various features and combinations' hereinafter described and claimed. v I

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of one .embodiment of my invention; Fig. 2 is a' top plan l view thereof, parts bein broken away; Fig.

3 is a verticall longitu inal section, on the line 3T3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional detail of the weighing mechanism and more closely associated arts; Fig. 5 is` a transversesectional deta on the line v5 5 of Fig.'2; and Fig. 6 shows one form 1, consistn ofa'plurality of pairs 'of rolls,-

of theupper dividing rolls. l

F designates the frame u n which is mounted the dividing means, ere shown -as' preferab y two innumber and arranged vertically one above the other.` -The upper pair .consists of 'a 'roll 10, the shaft of which is' journaled in fixed bearings `in the frame,

said roll being provided with circumfe'ren` 4 aal grooves 11, dividing the m11 into equal port1ons. Into these grooves extend blades `or knives 12, carried upon the periphery o f the companion roll 13, the shaft of which is journaled in arms 14 rotatable about a shaft 15 journaled in the frame, At the-ends of the roll 13 are disks orcheek-pieces 16, furnishing end walls between which the matel rial o rated upo isvretain'ed while being v cut.

ournaled in the frame, below' the roll 410 is the roll' 17 of the second pair, referably having its shaft rotatable in fixe bearcasionall this number ma 4Speciication of Letters Patent. Patented; Sept. 20,` 1910. Application filed September 22, 1904. Serial No. 225,453. I

the opposite end of theY roll 17 is secured a' gear 21 which meshes with a gear 22 fixed upon the shaft 15. This shaft also carries a gear 23 coperating with a gear 24 upon the shaft of the roll 10. The-roll 13 may be rotated by a train of gearing 25, situated at )the opposite end of the roll 19. The resulting rotation is indicated by the arrows in Fig. 3 of the drawings. i

Each of the arms 14 has -at or near its upper end a projection 26, which is connected by, a link 27 with an-angle-lever 28 fulcrumed at 28L upon the frame'. This lever in its other endis shown as-bifur cated, its forked portions 29 embracing projections 30 at opposite sides of a nut`031.

Above the upper pair of rolls is mounted v a hopper 33, to which is supplied the mass of material to be divided. As' it asses downward it is first cut by the circum erential knives 12 into strips of equal width, and then by the lon itudmal knives 18 these strips are separated into sections of equal length. If at any oint the material tends toadhere to thero s, a dofer may be ro` vided, there being here illustrated a b ade 33* in connection with the roll 10. .Normally the cut pieces fall upon a chute 34 and Iare directed toany desired receptacle. `To

determine the weight of the pieces and to allow them to be corrected or brou ht to/a standard,.one or more of these wil be ocabstracted. Inj the present instance, t ese pieces are thus wei hed, but vary with t e strips formed. From t e method employed, as will appear hereinafter, the error of the weighing mechanism aris1ng from lits resistance to movement, will be inversely roportioned to the number of pieces weig ed.

For this,l purpose'a delivery member or board permits its adjustment t 35 is provided, pivoted below the rolls and connected by a link 36 with an angle lever 37 fulcrumed upon the frame and normallyheld with the delivery board out of the path of the falling material by a spring 38. With the lever 37 coperates apin or projection 39, carried by an actuating member or bar 40, which is movably mounted in a guide 41. At the upper extremity of this actuating bar is shown a projection 42, extending into a cam-groove 43 formed in a disk 44. This disk is fast upon a shaft 45, which is rotatable by a train of gearing 46 from the shat `15. The cam-groove, which is concentric with the shaft for part of its length, has a rentrant portion 47, which raises the bar into contact with the angle-lever and moves the delivery-board beneath the lower pair of rolls. The movement just described directs the cut pieces to scale mechanism,

which may consists ofa beam 47a carryingA t-he usual weight 47 b with its associated scale and being ixed upon a pivot shaft 48, rotatable in the frame. This beam has at one end a depression to receive knife-edges 49 of supports 50, which are preferably main- Y tained in a substantially vertical position by links `51, pivotally connected to the frame. Between the supports extends a shaft 52, upon which is mounted a rotatable pan 53 .which may be divided into a suitable number of receptacles, conveniently three, by curved arms 54. 4This pan may be locked with one'of the receptacles in position to re- 35 ceive the material de ilected by the deliveryv board byl a latch 55, the weighted end ,56 of which engages one of a series of notches 57 in .a disk 5 8 fixed to the shaft 52. This latch may be tripped `by lan arm 59, movable 4Q about a stud 60- projecting from the frame and having 'connected with it a shorter arm 61 with which may` contact a lpin or projection 62 carried upon'the bar 40 below the pin 39. 'Thearm 59 may be held normallyl 4,5raised against a stop 62B'by a spring 62". The cam j-V groove 43, beyond the ,rentrant l portion, Ihas a projecting portion 63, which moves this pin 62 against the arm 6,1. The relations of the 'cam portions ofthe groove to one another is such that this release of the pan and its `rotation bythevweight of the material contained in one ofthe receptacles occurs after a suitable interval has been allowed vfor the weighing operation.

` When such rotation takes place, the pieceA is vcarry a pointer or index 82 moving over a pins 66, situated above and below the bem and on the inner side of each bar is shown a rack 67, with both of which meshes a pinion 68 xed upon a shaft 69 rotatably mounted in the frame. At one extremity of this shaft 70 is an arm 70, with which is connected `a link 71 having its opposite end articulated to a lever 72 fulcrumed upon the 'frame and having a projection 72l operating in a camgroove 73 formed in a disk 74. This disk 7: 1s preferably rotatable with the shaft 45. The form and angular position of the camgroove 73 is such that after the kcut pieces have been deposited in a receptacle of the pan the pinion is rotated, to move both the bar `projections from the scale beam, thus Vleaving it free for the weighing operation.

When this has been completed the bars are simultaneously moved in the opposite direction, returning the scale beam to its normal g5 position.` Rislng above the beam is shown a sector 75, upon which are pivoted opposite pawls '76 which may co-act with a ratchet wheel 77 fixed upon a sleeve 78 journaled in the frame and surrounding the pivotshat of the scale beam. This sleeve may be connected by bevel gearing 7 9 with the vertical shaft 32.` The position of the pawls with regard to the ratchet wheel is such, thatlwhen the scale beamoccupies its horizontal position "'theyare both out of contact with the ratchet teeth, but if the beam tilts in either direction onev of them will be moved away from the edge of the ratchet 1 Vwheel while the-other willfswing into co- 10o action with it, as is particularly shown in Figs. 3 and 4. When it isreturned to its normalposition bythe bars 64 the upper pawl, engaging the ratchet teeth, rotates the vertical shaftv through theearing, which resultsin the vnut '31 moving ongitudinally thereon. -T-his rocks the lever 28, moving the roll 13. toward or fronlthe roll 10, thus varying the s ace between them andthereforethe thic ess of the strips which are 11o cut by the circumferential knives. Before the .returngof the beamfhas been completed the -upperend of the active pawlv comes into contact withqa stop-member 80, of which there may be two,- projectingiffrom the frame -at each side vof the sector.v Thisin- Y,sures the. disengagement ofthe pawl from vthe ratchet wheel at the end of its operation. Theupper .extremity of the shaft 32 is pref- -erably provided with a hand wheel.81, 'by 1.20

which a manual adjustment of the relations of the rollsmay be secured, andas a'guide for this movement one of the arms 14 may suitable scale. 125

In the 4use of the apparatus, the upper rolls are adjusted by the hand wheel and the index and scale to give suchV a space between them that the resulting strip, when cut into pieces by the longitudinal knives 'of the 'seco-nd pair of rolls, will, be of a standard or the desired weight. The shaft A is now rotated and the plastic material continuously supplied through the hopper. The cut 'pieces will fall upon the chute save when at vintervals the delivery-board is -moved into their path by the projection 39l upon the actuating member, when one set of the pieces will fall in'to a receptacle of the weighing pan. Then the scale beam will i be automatically released by the separation.V of the locking bars, and if the pieces are of the correct weight the beam will remain in a horizontal position and there will-be no movement of the roll 13. If, however, the pieces are too light or too heavy, the beam will'swing in one direction or the other, bringing one of the pawls into such position that, upon the return of the beam to the horizontal by the locking members, it will i rotate the threaded shaft and cause the nut v the operation of weighing and varying the position of the roll to correct the weight-is repeated. This'is carried on automatically, it being only necessary to maintain a supply Y of the material operated upon in the hopper.

Instead `of delivering substantially rectangular pieces, such as will result from the arrangement of rolls hereinbefore described, they may be of curved cross-section, this b eing attained by making the faces of the .upper rollsconcave, as is shown at 83 in Fig. 6.

Having thus described my invention, I

claim as new and desire to secure by Letters 1. A machinefor dividing plasticn mate rial comprising means for dividing thema` terial into strips, means for dividing the' strips into separate portions, and I neans automatically' controlled by the weight of a portion for adjusting the positionof'rone of the dividing means.

2.`A machine for dividin plastic mate` rial comprising a plurality o pairs of rolls,

. one of said` airs being dprovided with a cirt-he position of one of the rst-named pair.

' 3. Ainachine -for dividing plastic mate#q rial comprising an upper pair of coacting rolls provided with circumferential blades,Y

a lower pair of rolls, one of which has longitudinal blades means for adjustingthe positionofone of said rolls, and meansconnected thereto and controlled by the weightof material passed between the lower rollsfor controlling said adjusting means.

4. .The combination with means for divid` Vmeans controlled by the weight of a divided portion for adjusting the position of the dividing means.

6. |The combination with means for dividing material into port-ions, one part of said means beingmovable, of weighing mechanism to which a divided portion may be delivered, and means controlled by the weighing mechanism for adjusting the position of the dividing means. f j

7. The combination with means for dividing material into portions, one part of said means being movable, of weighin meena-H nism to which a'portion may be elivered, means forlocking the weighing mechanism in its normal position, and means controlled by the' weighing mechanismffor adjusting the position ofthe dividing means.,y

8. The 'combination with means for ydividing material into portions, one part of lsaid means being movable, of weighing of'said movable part of mechanism to which a portion maybe delivered7 and means controlled by the weighing mechanism during its return to the normal the dividing means.

9. The combination with means for dividposition for adjusting the position of ing material into portions, one part of said means being movable, of 4wei hing meehanisinto which a automaticv means or locking mechanism in its normal position, and means controlled by the weighing -mechanism for adjusting the position of the dividing means. .v

10. The combination with means for diortion may e delivered,

the weighing viding material into portions, -one part of said means being movable to Vary the size 11. The combination vwith movable means for vdividing material in'to4 portionstof a scale-beam, aA movable recept-acle carriedby adjusting means, and a i the scale-beam and to which a.v portion may 1130 be delivered, and means for transmitting" be delivered, a latch for Xing the position of the receptacle, and means for-'transmitting the movement of the scale-beam to the dividing means.

14. The combination with movable means for dividing material into portions, of aV scale-beam, a movable receptacle carried by the scale-beam and to which a portion may be delivered, a latch for i-Xing the position of the receptacle, automatic tripping mechanism'or 'the latch, and means for transmitting the movement of the scale-beam to the dividing means.

15. rThe combination with a pair of rolls, one of which is movable, of means to which the material passed between the rolls is delivered for adjusting the movable roll, and connections between said adjusting means and roll.

Y 16. The combination with a one of which is movable, of weighing mechanisml to which material assin between the rolls may be delivered ratc et mechevoze anism connected with the scale mechanism, a 'threaded shaft rotatable by said ratchet mechanism, a nut operating upon the shaft,

and lever mechanism connecting the nut andA movable roll.

17. The combination with a pair of rolls,

one of which is movable, of welghingmechanism to which material passing between the rolls may be delivered, connections between the weighing mechanism and movable roll including ratchet mechanism, and poweroperated means for ret rning the scale mechanism to its normal position.

18. .The combination with a pair of rolls, one of which is movable, of weighing mechanism to which material passing between the rolls may be delivered, connections be- `tween the weighing mechanism and movable delivery member.

ln testimony whereof I have signed my name 'to this specification in the presence of two subscrlblng wltnesses. air of rolls,

I. ROSCOE HOYT. v

Witnesses: Y

EMILY LONG, JNO. M. RITTER. 

